344 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



Several years ago, when the winter was unusually 

 prolonged and severe, a fine big male cardinal 

 frequently came around the Cabin searching for 

 food. He was very beautiful in a white setting, 

 his song acceptable past belief; so I asked the 

 gardener to take a ladder and place a big piece of 

 bark on top of the grape arbour on which to scatter 

 some wheat and chop every day for the bird. The 

 English sparrows passed along the word that food 

 was there, and soon flocks of them gathered and 

 took all of it. So I suggested that it would be well 

 to wait until we heard the cardinal coming, before 

 placing his food. That set us to watching for him. 

 We began listening for his whistle, and when we 

 heard it, the food was placed. In a week, we were 

 on a working basis. Every morning at nine o'clock, 

 the cardinal came over from the Valley of the Wood 

 Robin and perching in a large elm in the yard of a 

 residence a square below us, sang and whistled and 

 trilled. He came closer and perching in a hickory 

 tree directly across from us he repeated the per- 

 formance. Then he flew to a small oak on the 

 j) roper ty next west of us, closed the concert, and 

 came directly to the grape arbour and feasted at 

 leisure. When he finished, without uttering a note, 

 he flew back to the Valley. At four o'clock in 

 the afternoon he repeated the performance, always 

 from exactly the same choir lofts. Great singers 

 give their concerts first, and dine afterward. So 

 did this bird. 



